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User blog:BeastMan14/Jessica Jones S3 Premiere Battle: The Defenders (MCU) vs the Umbrella Academy
As the third season of Jessica Jones brings Marvel's Netflix series to a close, I'm honoring the occasion by pitting the Marvel Netflix heroes against the next generation of Netflix do-gooders! The Defenders! The rag-tag team of vigilantes that came together to defeat the Hand and prevent the destruction of New York! The Umbrella Academy! The group of gifted children, forced back together as adults to prevent the apocalypse! We'll be comparing their powers and skills to determine the answer to the ultimate question: WHO...IS...DEADLIEST??? Intro The Defenders Formed in New York, the Defenders was an alliance of street-level heroes against the common threat of the Hand. The group consisted of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist, who were all drawn together through separate run-ins with agents of the Hand, with Matt Murdock (the secret identity of Daredevil) being called in to defend Jessica following her arrest while investigating the group while Cage and Rand clashed when they both broke up a drug operation being run in Harlem. Initially refusing to work together, the quartet finally came together when Rand stormed Midland Circle, the center of the Hand's operations, and was swiftly overwhelmed by their agents, only to be saved by Cage, Jones, and Murdock, leading to a massive fight in which the group narrowly escaped, pursued by Elektra, the Hand's greatest assassin and Matt's seemingly dead ex-girlfriend. After the battle, the group took shelter in a Chinese resturant, where they were approached by Stick, Matt's mentor, who explained the Hand's leadership, the Five Fingers, were going to destroy New York to access the source of their immortality, and that the Defenders were the only hope of stopping them. The group agreed to work together, investigating the Hand's efforts into New York and protecting each other's loved ones, but briefly fractured when they discovered that as Iron Fist, Danny was key towards helping the Hand access the source, which was hidden behind an indestructible wall under Midland Circle. The infighting distracted the group long enough for Elektra to stage an ambush, and she effortlessly defeated the Defenders, killing Stick and kidnapping Danny before leaving the others to get arrested. While the rest of the Defenders escaped from the NYPD, with allies Colleen Wing, Misty Knight, and Claire Temple in tow, Danny was lured into the catacombs by Elektra, who had usurped the Five Fingers as leader of the Hand, and tricked into using the Iron Fist to destroy the wall, enabling the Hand to access what it protected: an ancient dragon skeleton whose bones had regenerative abilities. Setting explosives to level the building and trap the Hand once and for all, the Defenders stormed the catacombs and battled the Fingers, killing or defeating all of them save Elektra, who Matt stayed behind with to try and redeem while the others escaped. Having saved New York, the group disbanded, but resolved, in Matt's honor, to stay in touch, helping each other whenever they needed it. Umbrella Academy In 1989, 43 women, all totally unrelated and scattered across the world, suddenly gave birth to children despite showing no signs of being pregnant. When these children, as infants, began to show incredible abilities, Sir Reginald Hargreeves, billionaire/inventor/adventurer, seeked out and adopted seven of them to train them into becoming superheroes, relocating him to his home in New York, which he deemed "The Umbrella Academy". Raised by Hargreeves, his chimp assistant Pogo, and a robotic servant/surrogate mother named Grace, the children were given numbers rather than names, but eventually named by Grace: Number One/Luther (gifted with extraordinary strength and durability), Number Two/Diego (given the power to control the trajectory of anything he throws), Number Three/Alison (a telepath who can mind control anyone with the phrase "I heard a rumor that..."), Number Four/Klaus (who can communicate with the dead), Number Five (who could jump through space and time), Number Six/Ben (who could summon otherworldly monsters), and Number Seven/Vanya (who seemingly possessed no powers). Introduced to the world as young heroes, the group were initially successful, but Hargreeves's cold parenting, alongside the death of Ben and the vanishing of Five, eventually scarred the children and drove them apart, save for Luther, who stayed out of loyalty to his father. Almost thirty years later, the sudden death of Hargreeves brought the family back together for his funeral, but tensions flared until Five returned, still his young self, and explained that he had been trapped in the future, where the entire Academy had been destroyed in a cataclysm that wiped out all life on Earth. Investigating both Hargreeves's death and the cause of the apocalypse, the team eventually discovered that their father had been plagued by nightmares of the apocalypse and killed himself in a last-ditch effort to assemble the team, and that the cause of the apocalypse was none other than Vanya, who had secretly possessed the power to manipulate sound waves, only for Hargreeves to suppress them with drugs and use Alison's power to make her forget she ever had them. As Vanya, having rediscovered her powers and pledged to destroy everyone who had ever doubted or hurt her, performed a destructive violin solo, Alison was able to knock her out, blasting a wave of energy into the moon that destroyed it and sent chunks of it hurtling towards Earth, ironically causing the apocalypse and forcing Five to take everyone back in time to try again. Powers and Abilities The Defenders |-| The Bruiser = The child of renowned preacher James Lucas, Carl Lucas was raised in Savannah, Georgia, where he grew up alongside his best friend Willis Stryker. Unbeknownst to Carl, Willis was the bastard son of James, conceived in an affair with his secretary, and this knowledge led to him resenting Carl as he grew older. After being sent to jail for car theft while Carl was able to beat the sentence by joining the army, Willis snapped and turned towards a life of crime, eventually framing Carl, who was sent to Seagate Penitentiary, where he was forced to fight in the prison boxing ring and experimented on by a scientist working for unknown superiors. The experiment gave Carl superhuman strength and seemingly unbreakable skin, and with the help of his therapist/lover Reva Connors, he escaped Seagate. After changing his name to Luke Cage and fleeing to New York City, Luke worked with Reva to discover the origins of his powers, but her death in an apparent bus accident left him distraught and forced him to start working as a bartender. One night shift led to a chance meeting with Jessica Jones, a private eye with superhuman strength, and the two struck up a relationship that ended after Luke discovered Jessica murdered Reva while under the control of the villain Kilgrave. Unable to forgive Jess but understanding of what happened, Luke moved out of Hell's Kitchen and back to Harlem, where he began working for Pop, the local barber and pillar of the community. Despite his best efforts, Luke ultimately clashed with the gangster Cottonmouth and his cousin, the councilwoman Mariah Dillard, after a drive-by shooter working for Cottonmouth accidentally killed Pop. Luke's war with Cottonmouth abruptly ended after Mariah murdered Cottonmouth and framed Luke for it, forcing him to go on the run from both the police and Styrker, who had taken the name "Diamondback" and begun wielding "Judas bullets", the only weapon's capable of piercing Luke's skin. With the help of doctor Claire Temple, Luke was able to clear his name and defeat Stryker, but was still sent back to Seagate to complete his original sentence, though Foggy Nelson was able to secure his release. Returning to Harlem, Luke was drawn into the criminal activities of the group The Hand, bringing him into direct conflict with Danny Rand, the Iron Fist. Despite initial hostilities, Luke took a liking to Danny, and they teamed up with Daredevil and Jessica to defeat the Hand at the apparent cost of Daredevil's life. Following his battle with the Hand, Luke became a local celebrity in Harlem, only to end up caught in the middle of a new war between Mariah, who had taken over Cottonmouth's criminal empire, and Bushmaster, a Jamaican gangster with a personal vendetta against Mariah's family and magic herbs that enabled him to match Luke physically. Pushed to his limit, Luke ended up driving away most of his friends and allies, but ultimately defeated Bushmaster, driving him out of Harlem, and imprisoning Mariah, who was murdered by her daughter Tilde. As a sign of respect, Mariah left Luke Harlem's Paradise, Cottonmouth's nightclub and a staple of Harlem. Realizing he had to fill the power vacuum before someone worse came along, Luke reluctantly became the new boss of Harlem, hoping to control criminal activities from the top. Powers and Abilities: *'Superhuman Physiology': Due to his experimentation in prison, in which he was subjected to a test designed to help burn victims accept any transplant and recover faster, Luke has greatly heightened physical abilities, most notably his strength and durability, but also his stamina, to the point where he was able to swim several miles from Seagate to the shore without stopping. Following a second treatment designed to remove a Judas Bullet, Luke became even more powerful, becoming immune to the bullets and capable of running faster than Usain Bolt. **'Superhuman Strength': Following the procedures, Luke became exceptionally strong, capable of sending humans flying with one punch, bending and crumpling steel like tissue paper, and totaling a speeding van by merely standing in it's way. He can also use his strength to leap far distances in a style similar to Golden Age Superman, measuring a distance of at least 24 feet in the broad jump. **'Superhuman Durability': Because his skin cells have become super elastic and energy absorbent, Luke's skin has become unbreakable and capable of protecting his internal organs from basically any attacks. He's been able to grab grenades and simply cover them from his hands to prevent the detonation from hurting him, bullets from machine guns only annoy him, and he's even survived an explosion that leveled an entire building and sent it toppling onto him. Using his durability, he's learned to deflect bullets with his hands, and he's even withstood an enchanted punch from Iron Fist, which knocked him back but barely phased him. The durability, however, does have it's limits, as powerful hits delivered at a close enough range (such as a shotgun blast directly to his neck) can hurt him, and super-strong foes like Stryker and Bushwhacker have been able to overpower him. **'Healing Factor': Luke's cells are able to regenerate and heal at a vastly accelerated rate, to the point where the mortal wounds he sustained in a fight in prison instantly healed after the procedure, and he healed from a brain hemorrhage the shotgun blast to the neck that knocked him out inflicted him with. He even recovered from a savage beating from Bushmaster that culminated with Bushmaster kicking him off a bridge and into the harbor with minimal injuries, though he needed herbs from Tilde to fully heal in time for a rematch. *'Skilled Investigator': Due to his time as a police officer, Luke is an excellent interrogator and tracker, which are skills he frequently uses to prevent criminal groups from setting up in Harlem. During his war with Cottonmouth, he was able to suss out his various hideouts and stash houses and swiftly destroy them in a single night, leaving the gangster reeling. *'Expert Boxer': Despite a tendency to rely on his strength, Luke is also an immensely talented boxer, owing to his training with Stryker when they were younger and his time in an illegal fighting ring when he was in prison. Using a mixture of boxing and more traditional street fighting, Luke regularly overpowers more skilled foes, such as Stryker, Sowande, one of the five Fingers of the Hand, and Bushmaster. |-| The Vigilante = The son of washed up boxer Jack Murdock, Matthew "Matt" Murdock's entire life was changed when he saved an elderly man from being hit by a chemical truck, only to be blinded by the hazardous material the truck was carrying. Waking up in the hospital, Matt realized he could hear every sound in the area. Learning to control his heightened senses, Matt continued learning as much as he could at the insistence of his father, who wanted a better life for him. One night, Jack was told by local mobsters to throw his fight with Carl Creel, but he chose to instead win the match and give the money he won to Matt. Before he could get home, Jack was killed, and Matt was moved to St. Agnes Orphanage, where he met Stick, a wise but rather coarse man who taught him how to control his senses. When Matt began to see Stick as a surrogate father, Stick left him, and would not return for many years. Years later, Matt was accepted into Columbia University, where he befriended Foggy Nelson. After they graduated, the duo worked as interns for Landman and Zach, but left after Matt grew disgusted with defending immoral corporations who ruined people's lives. They began their own law firm, swearing to protect the innocent and make a difference. After leaving, Matt began to have trouble sleeping due to hearing a girl crying as her father abused her. After the man alluded the authorities, Matt donned a black mask and savagely beat the man, threatening to kill him if he ever hurt his daughter again. Satisfied, Matt began donning the black mask and fighting more crime, bringing his actions to the attention of the criminal element of Hell's Kitchen. Equipment: *'Black Suit': Following the destruction of his Daredevil armor after Midland Circle, Matt returned to wearing his old black suit, a padded athletic shirt with white stitching and a black mask that covers the top of his face, alongside wrapping his fists in muay thai ropes, enabling him to do more damage in hand-to-hand combat. Abilities: *'Master Hand-to-Hand Combatant': With a fighting style that mixes the likes of boxing, wrestling, kung fu, and aikido, Matt is an incredibly dangerous foe up-close. He's capable of effortlessly defeating a group of armed cops up-close, going toe-to-toe with an assassin of the Hand, and overcoming Wilson Fisk, a man much stronger and larger than he is. Even when physically exhausted and badly injured, he was able to overcome a room of gangsters and rescue the child they had kidnapped. *'Skilled Acrobat': Matt's enhanced sense of balance enables him to pull off incredible feats of agility. He can dodge gunfire from an Uzi at close-range, and keep up with a moving car by jumping from rooftop to rooftop. *'Enhanced Senses': Despite the loss of his sight, Matt was trained by Stick to harness his other senses to their full potential, giving him superhuman senses. **'Superhuman Hearing': Matt's hearing is incredibly sensitive, to the point where he can hear a person's heartbeat to determine if they're lying or telling the truth and even hear a radio conversation from across the city. Even the highly-trained assassin Nobu was incapable of getting around it, as Matt heard him as soon as he entered the room. **'Superhuman Sense of Smell': Matt's sense of smell is enhanced to the point where he can smell a man's cologne even though the man in question is three floors below him. He can even tell what someone had for lunch a few days prior. **'Superhuman Taste': Matt's sense of taste enables him to pick up on even the tiniest tastes, such as the taste of copper in the air when someone is bleeding or being able to determine the location of the ingredients in a cone of ice cream. **'Super-Human Touch': Matt is capable of knowing who is around him simply by feeling the vibrations in the air, and he's capable of detecting and dodging bullets by feeling them cutting through the air. He can locate enemies on any floor of a building just by feeling the vibrations they create through the wall or floor. *'High Pain Tolerance': One of Matt's best traits is his refusal to back down, no matter what his injuries are. He once did battle with the Russian mob after they savagely beat and stabbed him before leaving him in a dumpster for hours, and defeated Nobu after suffering dozens of blade wounds all over his body, then attempted to attack the Kingpin, who threw him in the harbor. *'Stealth Expert': Daredevil can effortlessly get the drop on any foe with incredible ease, to the point where he was able to ambush a group of prepared cops and defeat them with ease. *'Skilled Marksman': Matt's senses give him enhanced spatial awareness, and he uses the skill to land well-placed shots with his clubs. In the season 1 finale, he was able to ricochet one of his clubs off the side of a truck, into a man's face, and back into his hand.*'Skilled Stick Fighter': Matt is highly skilled in the usage of his clubs, in both stick and staff form. |-| The Kid = The heir of the billion-dollar Rand Enterprises, Danny Rand was seemingly killed in the same plane crash that claimed the lives of his parents. In reality, Danny survived and was raised by the monks of K'un-Lun, where he trained in the ways of martial arts and grew up alongside his best friend, his master's son Davos. Danny and Davos's friendship would suffer a crippling blow when Danny defeated Davos in combat for the right to wield the power of the Iron Fist, and Danny eventually left K'Un-Lun when it returned to Earth to reclaim his birtright. Returning to New York, Danny was surprised to discover that Harold Meachum, his father's business partner, had died and given the company to his children, Danny's childhood friend Ward and Joy. Despite initial skepticism, they eventually gave Danny control of the company, where his idealism led him into conflict with both the Meachums and the Hand, the sworn enemy of the Iron Fist, who were selling heroin and plotting something much more sinister with the help of Harold, who had faked his death. With the help of Colleen Wing, a martial arts instructor who eventually becomes Danny's girlfriend, Claire Temple, and Davos, who was trying to get Danny back to K'un-Lun, Danny would battle the Hand and Harold, who was revealed to have orchestrated the plane crash, defeating both, but driving away Davos, who resolved to take the Iron Fist for himself. Taking Colleen back to K'un-Lun, Danny was horrified when he realized that the portal connecting it to Earth had closed, stranding both him and Davos and leaving Danny as the apparent sole warrior against the Hand. Seeking out the few surviving members of the Chaste, the Hand's other sworn enemy, Danny was stymied at every turn by a mysterious assassin, and his return to New York brought him into conflict with Luke Cage, who found Danny's idealism annoying and impractical. Despite initial tension, the two would bond, and they allied with Jessica Jones and Daredevil to stop the Hand from destroying New York, foiling their plans but at the cost of the life of Daredevil, who stayed behind to try and reform the assassin, who was his resurrected girlfriend Elektra. Hoping to make up for his apparent failure, Danny began taking his role as a hero more seriously and began protecting both Chinatown and Hell's Kitchen to fill the absence of Daredevil. During Luke's war with Bushmaster, a more streetwise Danny would arrive in Harlem to not only help Luke track him down, but also achieve some level of inner peace before leaving again. The return of Davos, who was working with Joy to get revenge on Danny, would prove to be Danny's ultimate test as the Iron Fist, as Davos stole the power from him and used it to become a tyrannical vigilante who slaughtered the various criminal gangs of Chinatown. With the help of Misty Knight, Danny defeated Davos, but decided he was also unworthy of the power and bestowed it onto Colleen before leaving America with Ward to track down the sole surviving Iron Fist, Orson Randall. Powers and Abilities: *'Chi Manipulation': Under the training of the monks of K'Un-Lun, Danny has obtained an expert understanding of chi, enabling him to channel it through his body to enhance his physical and mental capabilities. Because of his title as the legendary Iron Fist, Danny is able to channel the chi of the dragon Shou-Lou, granting him a variety of new abilities. **'Iron Fist Punch': His most iconic move, Danny can supercharge his fist so that it glows yellow and hits with incredible force. Using it, Danny was able to break down a steel door, shatter concrete, and even knock Luke Cage on his ass with one hit. While it's a powerful move, Danny can't overuse as it will drain his chi, though he's actively learning how to channel it for longer periods. **'Chi Blast': A blow from the Iron Fist also has immense concussive force, which Danny first discovered during a fight with his fellow Defenders, where he used a well-timed hit on Luke to knock back everyone in the room, and he used this trick to during the Midland Circle battle to knock back Madame Gao and the rest of the Hand. With enough effort, he can send out the chi without having to hit anyone, as he was able to rescue Davos from Hand operatives by merely shoving one and letting the wave knock the rest back. **'Chi Sense': Danny can sense the Chi in all living things, enabling him to sense both someone's presence and any potential ailments that are harming them. He can even sense the emotions in other people and help broadcast his own feelings to them, as he was able to calm down an angry guard dog by merely looking at it. **'Chi Healing': Danny can use the powers of the Iron Fist to heal from wounds. He's recovered from brutal fights relatively quickly, and he once healed a bullet wound in his hand by summoning the Iron Fist, which healed instantly. *'Peak/Enhanced Human Physicality': Years of training have crafted Danny into the peak of human ability, which was enhanced further when he was made the Iron Fist. Danny's reflexes are to the point where he can easily dodge bullets and defeat one of the Hand's most fearsome fighters without even looking at them, and he's regularly performed impossible physical feats such as leaping over a taxi and leaping up to a second story balcony in only two jumps. *'Master Martial Artist': As the Iron Fist, Danny is one of the world's greatest fighters, which was proven when he defeated all of K'un-Lun's greatest warriors in a tournament for the right to challenge Shou-Lou. His fighting style is a mixture of several martial arts, and he's been able to defeat stronger, more ruthless foes even without the fist, such as when he defeated Davos after Davos had stolen the Iron Fist from him. |-| The Moody One = After losing her entire family in a car accident, Jessica Jones was adopted by the family of Patsy Walker, an up-and-coming child celebrity, and the two formed a deep bond. Shortly after being adopted, Jessica discovered that she had obtained superhuman strength from the accident and she began pursuing a career as a superhero as she grew older. Despite initial success, Jessica would eventually cross paths with Kilgrave, a sociopath with the ability to control minds, and he converted her into his personal slave/lover, and it wasn't until he forced her to murder Reva Connors that she was able to break free of his control and escape, developing PTSD from the incident and turning to private detective work to make ends meet. After trying to keep her head down for some time, Jessica would clash with Kilgrave again after he re-emerged in New York, and with the help of Patsy, now a radio host going by the name Trish, her assistant Malcolm, and her boss Jeri Hogarth, was able to defeat him, discovering he was immune to his mind control before snapping his neck. The source of her trauma defeated, Jessica worked to become a better person and officially established Alias Investigations, her detective agency. Through the agency she met John Raymond, an architect who built Midland Circle for the Hand and had resolved to destroy it upon learning of their plans, and reluctantly allied with her ex-boyfriend Luke Cage and the vigilantes Daredevil and Iron Fist when she realized Raymond's family was in danger. After defeating the Hand, Jessica's popularity wildly skyrocketed and she was constantly being assigned new cases until she stumbled upon the affairs of IGH, a mysterious pharmaceutical company responsible for her and Kilgrave's powers. Investigating the company, Jessica was shocked to discover that her mother was alive and had been given the same abilities as her, but lacked Jessica's emotional control. Jess's mother proved to be impossible to keep in New York, and the two attempted to flee to Canada, but the plan was ruined by Trish, who arrived and killed Jessica's mother to prevent her from hurting anyone else. Broken by the loss of her family, Jessica severed all her old ties and closed down Alias, though she would still send Danny Rand to look after Luke during his war with Bushmaster and Mariah Dillard. Powers and Abilities: *'Enhanced Physiology': Brought back from the dead as a result of IGH's experiments, Jessica also obtained a variety of superhuman powers as a side effect. **'Superhuman Strength': Despite her small size and frame, Jessica's strength is well beyond that of any ordinary human. Even when hungover, she's been able to destroy an alarm clock with her bare hands and leave dents in the ceiling from throwing her shoes, and as a teenager she destroyed a bathroom sink and lifted it over her head. In combat, she can easily ragdoll much larger humans, rip the door off of cars to defend herself, and singlehandedly hold up an elevator with Luke and Danny inside it. For non-combat purposes, she's able to easily break locks and doors to sneak into buildings and use her strength to jump a full story and keep herself suspended between two buildings. **'Superhuman Speed': Jessica's speed is enhanced to the point where she could briefly keep up with the speedster the Whizzer and run alongside a bus as it pulled out of a station. This speed affects her reflexes as well, as she was able to catch a fly out of mid-air and reach across a move to prevent a child from falling out of a window. **'Superhuman Durability': While not immune to bullets or explosions in the same way Cage is, Jessica's durability has enabled her to shrug off intense beatings or injuries in the past, such as being hit by a speeding car and only having to limp or being repeatedly tased by private security guards. She also has a healing factor that enables her to recover from major injuries in a matter of days, if not hours, and resisting poison to the point where she has to intake massive amounts of alcohol to get drink. **'Flight': Using her strength, Jessica can propel herself through the air, though she claims it's more guided falling than actual traditional flight. *'Master Detective': Jessica is an excellent detective, capable of easily manipulating potential suspects into giving up vital information, and easily sneaking into locations and tracking down people of interest. Umbrella Academy |-| The Bruiser = The first of Hargreeves's adopted children, Luther (designated Number One) was the self-appointed leader of the Academy and the one with the most loyalty to Hargreeves. As a teenager, he fell in love with Alison but Hargreeves put a stop to the relationship, emotionally isolating Luther, who still has feelings for her in the present day. When the rest of Academy eventually left, going their separate ways, Luther stayed behind and ran missions solo until one went horribly wrong, knocking him into critical condition. To save his life, Hargreeves and Pogo gave him a serum that boosted his abilities but regressed his body into an ape-like state. Out of guilt, Hargreeves informed Luther that he was being assigned to keep an eye on a secret base located on the Moon, which was supposedly in danger. After years on the Moon, Luther returned to Earth for the funeral, where he reunited with his siblings and was the most insistent on Hargreeves's death not being natural causes. His investigation led to him clashing with the more hotheaded Diego and Five, but also attempting to rekindle his relationship with Alison, who had since married and had a daughter. Luther's investigation led to him discovering that Hargreeves had lied to him about the Moon, leading to a nervous breakdown, convinced that he had wasted his life. This breakdown, combined with Vanya's attempted murder of Alison, led to him trying to contain her in a vault below the mansion, further motivating her destructive rampage. During the battle at the Icarus Theatre, Luther tried to rush Vanya alongside Diego, Five, and Klaus, but was easily defeated, and traveled back in time with his siblings to take another shot at preventing the apocalypse. Powers and Abilities: *'Superhuman Strength': Even prior to his enhancement, Luther is exceptionally strong, to the point where he could throw a fully-grown man across the room when he was a child. As an adult, his already considerable powers were amplified further, as he was able to pick up and hurl bowling balls with ease, lift up a massive iron chandelier, and rip doors off of their hinges. In the future foreseen by Five, Luther was even able to rip a man's cybernetic eye cleanly out of his skull before dying. *'Superhuman Durability': Luther's durability was greatly enhanced by the serum, to the point where he can easily shrug off being savagely beat, then having a chandelier dropped on him by the superhuman hitman Hazel and was the first to recover from being easily tossed aside by Vanya during the fight at the Icarus. While his durability is impressive, he's not totally invulnerable, as he shies away from bullets and Diego was able to cut him with his knives, though he didn't react to the wound. *'Ape Physiology': The serum designed to save Luther's life also turned his body into something resembling that of a muscular gorilla, to the point where Pogo claims he's closer to him genetically than he is the rest of the family. On top of enhancing his powers, the serum also made Luther much larger physically, to the point where he regularly has to crouch to enter rooms through doorframes. |-| The Vigilante = The second of the children, and the one intended to be Luther's second-in-command, Diego was born with the ability to curve and control the trajectory of anything he throws and a nervous stutter, something he overcame through the close nurturing of Grace. The most rambunctious and rebellious of the children, Diego was one of the first to leave the Academy, attempting to become a police officer, and when that failed, becoming a vigilante that prowled the streets of New York battling evildoers and protecting the helpless. At some point, Diego met Detective Eudora Patch, and the two began a relationship, with Patch working as a (reluctant) source for Diego. Upon the death of Hargreeves, Diego stole his father's monocle and threw it into the harbor as a final act of spite, and was most reluctant to investigate the cause of his death, but he became personally invested in stopping the apocalypse when Hazel and Cha-Cha, two assassins sent by the Commission, an organization dedicated to manipulating and controlling the timeline, murdered Patch. As he works with the group to determine the cause of the apocalypse, Diego bonds with his siblings and ultimately comes to terms with Patch's death, reluctantly forgiving Hazel when he tries to repent for it by helping the team. Upon the revelation of Vanya's powers, Diego is the most disgusted by both Hargreeves and Luther's treatment of her and attempts to release her from the cell, but is stopped. Like the others, Diego is defeated by a rampaging Vanya at the theater, and he too travels back with the others, ready to be part of a team again. Equipment: *'Combat Gear': For his vigilante activities, Diego wears an outfit designed for stealth, a black turtleneck with a bandolier for holding his knives alongside black combat boots and leather gloves. *'Combat Knives': Diego always carries numerous throwing knives, best resembling kunai, that he can use for close or ranged combat. Powers and Abilities: *'Peak Physical Condition': Diego trains constantly and personally considers his body to be "a temple", refusing to partake in alcohol, drug use, or any unhealthy eating habits for fear of making himself a less dangerous warrior. *'Expert Marksman': Related to his personal ability to control trajectory of weapons, Diego is an expert marksman, capable of landing fatal blows with his knives from across large distances such as a crowded bowling alley and the wide-open rooms of the Academy. This doesn't just apply to knives, as he's capable of landing well-placed hits with improvised tools such as bowling pins and kitchen utensils. *'Stealth Expert': Diego is a master of stealth, capable of easily vanishing in and out of the shadows when people so much as turn their back on him, and he was even able to sneak into the heavily surveiled Academy following the death of Hargreeves and steal his monocle, despite his body being closely attended by Pogo and Grace. *'Skilled Hand-to-Hand Combatant': Training as a boxer by day and having learned a variety of martial arts while at the Academy, Diego is a skilled, crafty fighter up-close, able to easily defeat several armed Commission mercs and was able to outmatch both Luther and Hazel, two much larger and much stronger men, in fights by utilizing his speed and skill. *'Skilled Knife Fighter': Diego's usage of his knives is unmatched both up-close and at a distance. During his fight with Luther, he landed several well-placed cuts that slowed him down substantially and would've been fatal had Diego been less precise. *'Talented Investigator': As a former police trainee, Diego showcases a surprising amount of intelligence when it comes to piecing things together, as he was the one that came closest to realizing the truth of Hargreeves's death despite his reluctance to take part in the Luther's investigation. |-| The Kid = The fifth adopted child, Number Five (his real name either unknown or simply not obtained) was born with the ability to manipulate time and space to travel across distances in the blink of an eye. While he initially used it for teleportation, Five and Hargreeves eventually discovered that he could travel through time. While the arrogant Five assumed it would be easy, his adopted father was more wary, and forbid him from doing so, leading to a fight in which Five stormed out and tested the power himself. While it did work, he soon found himself trapped in a post-apocalyptic future in which he was the sole surviving human, and that the rest of the Academy had died in battle. Wandering the Earth for any clues as to how this happened, Five went mad from the isolation, picking up a drinking habit and falling in love with a mannequin named Delores. After almost forty years, Five was recruited by the Handler, the leader of the Commission, who sensed his potential and offered him a way out of the wasteland. Working as an assassin to ensure the stability of the timeline, Five eventually went rogue, traveling back in time with one of the Commission's briefcases to eight days before the apocalypse to warn his siblings, and determine the origin of the sole clue: a glass eye that he found in Luther's hand. To his distress, he ended up de-aged by the process, becoming a 50 year old mind in a thirteen year old body. Pursued by the Commission's forces, Five recruited his siblings for his investigation, and was eventually forced to work for the Commission again to ensure the survival of Luther and Diego. Almost immediately, Five went rogue again, stealing a new briefcase and nearly killing the Handler with a grenade, and accidentally erased a timeline in which the Academy was able to finally come together as a unit. Eventually, Five was able to trace the eye to Leonard Peabody, Vanya's boyfriend who was secretly a bitter sociopath who had resented the Academy for decades, and had manipulated and abused her into becoming an instrument of death, and determined that Leonard, who had recently lost an eye, was the cause of the apocalypse. Upon finding him killed, Five concluded that the apocalypse had been averted, only to discover the true cause was Vanya. After the battle at the theater, Five resolves to go back and try again, this time bringing his siblings with him. Weapons and Equipment: *'Browning Hi-Power': Kept in Five's coat pocket, the Browning Hi-Power is a semi-automatic pistol with a range of 50 meters and 13 rounds per clip. Powers and Abilities: *'Teleportation': Capable of manipulating time and space for travel, Five is capable of both short-range and long-range teleportation, though he notably tires out if he overuses the power too much in short capacity, a weakness that nearly got him killed during his escape from Hazel and Cha-Cha. *'Expert Assassin': Five is a well-trained, ruthless killer, and is frequently regarded as the Commission's best man due to his numerous skills and his intellect. Using a mixture of his powers and a kitchen knife, he was able to casually slaughter an entire strike team in a matter of minutes, and he was able to near-fatally cripple the Commission in one day by infiltrating and manipulating his way into a position of trust. *'Tactical Genius': As an assassin, Five's ideal method was often simply altering the timeline in a minor way to create a domino effect, and he used this wit to stay one step ahead of his pursuers upon returning to the present. |-| The Moody One = The fourth of the adopted children, Klaus was gifted with the power to channel and communicate with the dead. To nurture this power, Hargreeves regularly locked Klaus inside ancient catacombs, surrounding him with the wrathful and confused spirits of those who had died long ago. This upbringing deeply traumatized Klaus, who turned to drug use and a hedonistic lifestyle to suppress his powers as best he could, speaking only with the spirit of Ben, who became a reluctant conscience to Klaus. After Hargreeves's death, Klaus was released from rehab, and after stealing a box containing Hargreeves's writings on Vanya and throwing it away, began to assist Five, largely out of boredom. During the attack on the Academy by Hazel and Cha-Cha, Klaus was totally unaware of the fight due to his headphones drowning out all noise, and he was subsequently kidnapped and tortured by the duo for information. The torture proved ineffective at anything besides sobering him up, and he was able to use his powers to manipulate the two, keeping them distracted long enough for Detective Eudora Patch to arrive. While the duo manages to kill Patch, Klaus escapes, stealing their briefcase and accidentally time-traveling back to the 60s with it. In the 60s, Klaus found himself enlisted Vietnam, where he met and fell in love with a soldier named Dave, only to lose Dave to a sniper in combat just as the briefcase brought him back to the modern day. Deeply shaken by the loss of Dave, Klaus began attempting to sober up so he could speak to him, but ended up swiftly falling off the wagon and going on a bender with Luther, which culminated in Klaus briefly getting knocked out and going to the afterlife, where he met Hargreeves, who explained the circumstances of his death to him. Bringing this information back to the team, Klaus attempted to return back to his drug life, but being physically struck by Ben made him realize his powers had more potential than he realized. Experimenting, he discovered that he could summon the dead back to the real world for a brief moment, and he used this ability to save the team during the battle at Icarus Theatre, summoning Ben to kill the gunmen who had them pinned. After the fight, Klaus, Vanya's closest sibling, was the most insistent on not leaving her behind, returning the empathy his sister showed for him. Powers and Abilities: *'Mediumship': Klaus's base power is an ability to communicate with the dead, who appear to him in visions only he can see and are often tied to a location or person close to him, such as speaking to spirits of people buried in the catacombs or by channeling the victims of Hazel and Cha-Cha. According to Klaus, he can channel specific people to speak with, but it takes effort and they'll only appear if they want to, which prevented him from speaking to Hargreeves. *'Conjuration': When sufficiently sober, Klaus is able to bring spirits into the mortal realm, enabling them to interact with people and things besides Klaus. While he's still relatively inexperienced with the ability, he is able to consistently summon Ben, who is still able to use his powers of summoning Lovecraftian entities, specifically by shooting their appendages out of his chest to strike opponents. *'High Pain Resistance': A lifetime of drug use has dulled Klaus's senses, to the point where hours of brutal torture at the hands of Hazel and Cha-Cha only managed to arouse him and he was able to smash a snow globe against his own head with no signs of injury or disorientation. *'Skilled Improviser': Despite his wiry frame and laidback demeanor, Klaus is, according to Hargreeves, one of the children with the most potential, and he's shown it through his wit, manipulating others and making surprisingly insightful observations when he wants to, alongside being able to defeat an armed hitman with nothing but a birthday cake. X-Factors Explanations *While the Defenders went up against incredible odds and prevailed, they only really worked together for a few days before disbanding. The Umbrella Academy, by comparison, were a team for years, fighting crime together until they were in their late teens before coming together again. *While most of the Defenders (save Jessica) have some form of training, beyond Danny, it's largely self-teaching or limited experience with a teacher such as Stick. The Academy were all subjected to a grueling training regimen by Hargreeves, and while some (Klaus) have largely forgotten it, the others continued to follow it as adults, with Diego receiving additional training as a boxer while Five was trained as a professional killer. *The Defenders have worked as solo heroes for years, battling a wide variety of threats from kingpins to ninjas to superpowered sociopaths, while the Academy's membership outside of Diego and Five largely lacks combat experience, with Luther having never really left the mansion before going to the moon while Klaus chose to live a life of excess rather than pursuing superheroics. *The Umbrella Academy's greatest flaw is an inability to communicate with one another, not helped by the longstanding tensions between certain members and Luther's lack of proper socialization preventing him from stepping up as the leader he was meant to be until late in the series. While they do eventually regain the old synergy, it takes time and the group still tends to fight as individuals rather than a cohesive unit. The Defenders, on the other hand, had their clashes, but they still were able to fight as a team when it really counted. Notes *Voting ends June 29th. *It will be set after Umbrella Academy Season 1, and after the end of Jessica Jones Season 3, and the battle will be within the Umbrella Academy mansion. *Scenario: Following the battle of Icarus Theatre, the Academy travels back in time, only for a mishap to only send them back a few months. Sensing an opportunity, the Commission manipulates the Defenders, finally all back together, into attacking the mansion by convincing them of the threat to New York, leading to a brawl between the two groups. Category:Blog posts